Category: Corporate Tax

FIRST proposed by the European Commission (EU) in 2016, a set of new tax rules aimed at eliminating most common corporate tax avoidance practices came into force on 1 January 2019. The commission posted on its website on 30 December 2018 that the new tax rules known as Atad (anti-tax...

THE DUTCH government has added the Turks and Caicos Islands and 15 other countries to a tax haven blacklist. The jurisdictions listed have no corporation tax or a corporation tax rate of less than nine percent, a press release from the Government of the Netherlands stated. The 16 countries added...

The IRS has issued guidance on excess business loss limitations and net operating losses following changes post-reform. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act modified existing tax law by limiting losses from all types of business for non-corporate taxpayers. An excess business loss is the amount by which the total deductions...

CANBERRA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — The amount of tax paid by Australia’s biggest companies has risen 20 percent in a single year, data has revealed. According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) ‘s corporate tax data for financial year 2016-17, which was released on Thursday, the nation’s 1,470 biggest companies...

The government is targeting to increase tax compliance among Micro Small and Medium Sized Enterprises by offering them lower corporate tax. East African Affairs Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed says various government agencies are working closely in integrating all tax payment regimes to ease tax payment and boost compliance. Tax avoidance...

I. The background of the tax reform In connection with the international pressure on the Swiss corporate tax location, especially in relation to the Cantonal exemption of income for holding companies as well as the status privileged companies (“status privilege”) and the need of Switzerland to recover global recognition as...

When European finance ministers meet on Tuesday (4 December), they should swiftly adopt the digital service tax: a levy on turnover for very large digital firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Booking and Spotify, write Udo Bullmann and Paul Tang. Udo Bullmann is president of the Socialist and Democrats...

Barbados is to scrap its international business company (IBC) regime in response to the OECD labeling the policy as “harmful” to competition, and being in breach of rules governing international taxation. Last year the OECD included Barbados on its list of jurisdictions with a “harmful” preferential tax regime, and said...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday November 22, 2018 – Barbados will harmonize its domestic and international corporation tax regimes, by December 31, 2018, slashing the tax burden for some local companies by up to 29 per cent. Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced in the Barbados Parliament on Tuesday, November 20, the ambitious...

The cabinet of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to implement tax cuts for the nation’s businesses, which, along with the announced plans to reduce regulation, are highly reminiscent of the economic policies of Canada’s southern neighbour. Kristian Rouz — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled an ambitious...

Prime Minister, Mia Mottley has announced a major tax break for local business. In her mini-budget presentation made earlier this year, she had announced that come July 1, corporation tax will increase from 25 per cent to 30 per cent which was expected to raise $57M in a full year....

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has revealed six tricks that multinational firms use to dodge paying tax. One of the schemes involves the firms exporting very cheaply and importing good very expensively. The authority reports that most firms also under-declare they pay to expatriates a move that reduces their profits and...

The foreign-invested enterprises which have been running large, prolonged losses and large related-party transactions, will be inspected for tax compliance. The General Department of Taxation (GDT) has just sent a document asking provincial and city Departments of Taxation to inspect and supervise groups, corporations, and companies, which reported big losses...

US multinational corporations are plundering the populations of the United States and the world to the tune of trillions of dollars by driving down and evading taxes on profits booked overseas. This is the conclusion that emerges from a recent study by University of California at Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman...

Arriving at the meeting Tuesday in Brussels, the Danish minister of Finance, Kristian Jensen, said of his side: “Everything is possible in politics but I think that it is very hard to reach an agreement on the taxation of the digital economy”. Under the proposal, a 3pc levy would be...

Our previous article about the taxable basis for the taxation of companies in the Macau territory made reference to the fact that the courts in Macau, notably the Court of Second Instance (TSI) and the Tax Administration, do not seem to share the same view regarding income considered as the...

Indian high commission in Dhaka has requested different Bangladesh government agencies including National Board of Revenue to solve a number of tax-related ‘problems’ Indian chief executive officers-managed multinational companies are facing in the country. In a letter to NBR sent on September 10, the high commission said that Indian CEOs...

BERLIN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) — German companies are highly sceptical that the British government can deliver on a promise to attract more business to Britain by lowering taxes after Brexit, a study published on Thursday by the Foundation for Family Business in Germany and Europe found. According to the study,...

BEIJING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — The Chinese government will roll out more measures to facilitate the delivery of major foreign-invested projects, lower tariffs on some imported goods and streamline customs clearance procedures at a faster pace, as was decided at the State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li...

On September 13, South China’s Guangdong province announced a series of investment incentives and cost-cutting measures to offset the impact of the worsening trade war with the US. The measures, outlined in the Policy Measures for Expanding Opening-up and Using Foreign Investment, consist of a 10-point plan to attract foreign...

The Swiss parliament has approved an ambitious government bill aiming to combine the contentious issue of corporate tax reform with changes to the pension system. The package could yet come to a nationwide vote in 2019. The repackaged bill was drawn up after Swiss voters threw out an initial plan...

The Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC) has explained why it is shifting the war against corruption in the country from politically exposed persons to multinationals. According to the Executive Secretary of PACAC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, Africa and indeed Nigeria losses more from Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) perpetrated by multinational...

Benjamin Diokno, the Philippines’ Budget and Management Secretary, says the Government should secure the passage of all the remaining comprehensive tax reform bills within the next two months. “I’m very confident that all the tax packages will be passed … at best, maybe in eight weeks,” he said, noting that...

The Internal Revenue Service is making some adjustments to its Compliance Assurance Process, a program aimed at large corporate taxpayers that involves cooperating with the IRS before any audits. As part of the proposed changes, the IRS said Monday it will shift the start of the application period to Oct....

Around 2,000 millionaires – many of them billionaires – call Monte Carlo their home and avoid paying billions of euros in tax. Sputnik spoke to the UK Socialist Party’s Deputy General Secretary, Hannah Sell, about why France and the European Union have done nothing to combat this tax haven in...

There is a small island in the Caribbean … You immediately imagine relaxation, a beach, palm trees. However today in these small areas a really big crypto history is being created. The crypto business is increasingly mastering the jurisdiction of “dwarf” states, such as Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, The Republic of...

China offers a number of preferential corporate income tax (CIT) policies for businesses operating in the country. Businesses that qualify for these preferential policies can benefit from incentives like CIT rates lower than the standard 25 percent rate and other CIT exemptions and deductions. These preferential tax treatments, however, do...

Last week, Medtronic Plc suffered a legal setback in its bid to avoid a $1.4 billion U.S. tax bill — a ruling that may have costly implications for other multinationals battling the Internal Revenue Service over the use of overseas payments to lower their taxes. Companies including Facebook Inc. and...

Singapore is globally renowned for its competitive tax structure. The country imposes corporate income tax (CIT) at a flat rate of 17 percent, which is the lowest among the ASEAN member states. The single-tier corporate tax system enables businesses to save on the cost of compliance, eliminate restrictions placed on...

Long-awaited and highly anticipated proposed regulations for Code Section 199A, the new 20 percent deduction on “qualified business income” of pass-through entities, were released August 8 by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, and experts are saying they’re broadly taxpayer-friendly. “The government did a good job of responding...

News that the government may bring in an ‘Amazon tax’ to help “rebalance the playing field” between physical and online retailers has been welcomed by booksellers. After department store retailer House of Fraser became the latest high street chain to go into administration on Friday (10th August) Philip Hammond said...

U.S. companies that had been unsure of how to calculate a new tax on profits they’ve stashed offshore now have official answers. The Internal Revenue Service issued proposed regulations on Wednesday on Section 965, governing the so-called repatriation tax, detailing which corporate taxpayers are subject to the tax, which assets...

One digital platform has registered on its own and others are being registered ex officio. Foreign digital platforms, which mediate services in transport and accommodation in Slovakia, are obliged to launch so-called permanent establishments in Slovakia. The Finance Ministry wants to force them to pay corporate tax. So far only...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pledged to reform Spain’s corporate tax rules so that companies pay an effective rate no lower than 15 percent. Laying out the new Socialist Government’s two-year economic plan before parliament on July 17, Sanchez proposed that, by restricting the use of deductions, he would...

From a commercial viewpoint it is important that the Holdco is located in a reputable jurisdiction when seeking to access international equity and debt capital markets. The choice of Holdco location will also be relevant in circumstances where private equity investment is envisaged or where a trade sale is planned....

The European Commission’s proposal for a digital services tax would be “deeply harmful” to the EU business environment and may lead to double taxation, a coalition of business and technology groups has warned EU leaders. An open letter published by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) ahead of the European...

ATHENS, June 30 (Xinhua)– As Greece is loosening its capital controls imposed in 2015 to avert the collapse of banking system amid debt crisis, Greeks are increasingly using bank cards for tax avoidance rather than cash withdrawal limits. According to recent figures from the central Bank of Greece, more than...

The highly concentrated nature of Ireland’s corporation tax receipts represents “an unacceptable level of risk,” according to parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. The PAC has published a new report on Ireland’s corporation tax receipts. Corporation tax accounted for 15 percent of total tax receipts in 2016, with 70 percent of all...

The IMF has said that the recent changes to the US tax system could make Canada a less attractive destination for investment. The IMF has published the report from its latest Article IV mission to Canada, in which it noted that “external risks are more acute than in the recent...

Both large and small businesses in the United States expect the measures included in the recently enacted tax reform legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, to have a positive effect on their operations, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT). In a recent statement, Hatch...

According to figures released earlier this year, SMEs are in fact paying more corporation tax than larger more complex organisations. Specifically, the rate paid by SMEs in 2016 was 21.7%, while it was 20% for businesses with a turnover of £1billion. The research was conducted by accountancy firm Moore Stephens,...

The OECD has endorsed New Zealand’s crackdown on multi-national tax evasion, despite significant criticism from local businesses that it departs from OECD standards, Thomas Coughlan reports. David Bradbury, head of the OECD’s tax policy and statistics division, told Newsroom that the OECD was “very pleased with the strong support that...

Ease of doing business and tax reforms are at the center of India’s growth agenda as the country pitches itself as the leading investment destination among global emerging markets. Yet, India’s tax competitiveness record remains mixed. At a time when the U.S., U.K., and Japan have slashed their corporate tax...

Romania will be able to count less on the low taxation advantage in order to attract investments due to growing competition, after eight EU member states have reduced their corporate tax rates since 2017, according to a study released by Deloitte Romania. “Even in the new context, the Romanian corporate...

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new template that corporate taxpayers need to use when asking for an advance pricing agreement with the IRS. Advance pricing agreements are prior agreements between multinational companies and the IRS on the appropriate transfer pricing method to use for a given set of...

Experts’ reactions to the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) tax adjustment draft have been mixed, while the business community struggles to keep up with the variety of proposed tax hikes. Most recently, the MoF’s proposal to impose auxiliary property tax rate of 0.3-0.4 per cent per property value for houses worth...

BRUSSELS (Alliance News) – US fast food giant McDonald’s has reshuffled its corporate structure to make tax-avoidance practices less transparent after the EU had opened an investigation into the company’s tax schemes in 2015, a group of trade unions said Monday. The report by a coalition of European and US...

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has disclosed that the Federal Government paid N439.3 million to fourteen whistleblowers who gave vital information in the recovery of billions of Naira and some millions in hard currency from some corporate tax evaders. While she did not name the offending companies, Adeosun told...

In China, withholding Corporate Income Tax (CIT) is applied to the following China-sourced incomes derived by non-resident enterprises without establishments in China, or to that derived by non-resident enterprises with establishments in China but whose income is not related to these establishments: Dividends, bonuses, and other equity investment proceeds; Interests,...